a bunch of rambling thoughts, many of which relate to hymns and songs, theology and books, movies and tv, food and fashion, politics and the drama that is my life, but nothing really makes a consistent appearance except pictures.

so i'm reading "a house of pomegranates" (a collection of short stories), by oscar wilde. i came across this story in "the birthday of the infanta" which i think in large part expresses how we feel when facing the law. here's your background: a really rather hideous dwarf dances for the young princess of spain, and she tells him she loves him and gives him a beautiful rose. soon after, he wanders the palace looking for her, and finds a mirror. it takes him a while to figure it out, but this is the conclusion he reaches:"so it was he who was misshapen and hunchbacked, foul to look at and grotesque. he himself was the monster, and it was at him that all the children had been laughing, and the little Princess who he had thought loved him - she, too, had been merely mocking at his ugliness, and making merry over his twisted limbs. why had they not left him in the forest, where there was no mirror to tell him how loathsome he was?"the catch, of course, is that in this story, the Princess really does laugh at his expense. she is totally self-absorbed, and when the dwarf dies of a broken heart, she responds, "for the future let those who come to play with me have no hearts."so often i think even we Christians believe that the mirror of the law exists to demonstrate to us our wretched sinfulness - that that demonstration is the end goal. oh, how we hate that! but in romans 10:4, we learn what the true purpose of the law is - "Christ for righteousness to everyone who believes." the final purpose of the law was never to make us behave a certain way, or to make us feel guilty even, but rather to prostrate us before the throne of grace and there find the covering of the blood of Christ. not that we aren't to obey (duh), but that in the end, the law is about Jesus, too.pretty sweet, right?seriously, my oscar wilde professor will not know what to do with me. i daresay he's never taught a mind like mine before - so ridiculously all over the place!

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So Oscar Wilde IS good for something! And if you're prof won't know what to do with you it's not because you're all over the place (which you're not). It will be because of your faith. So keep letting your light shine so that they will see your good works and glorify God :-)

Speaking of professors, how did your philosophy prof like your essay on Christian Platonism?